Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Ride the Train

Time to escape cold weather inertia and go for a quick ride on the D. We all (well some of us) lament the endless Brooklyn branding, & the precious fetishizing of increasing swathes of the borough. If you live within the hot zone, it's easy to get overwhelmed by the money and the hype, but a trip on the elevated tracks, over the old city line, will put things back in perspective. The shuffle past cornices, and sagging-curtained windows, the lost movie theater - a Renaissance citadel on New Utrecht Avenue, the broad flat vistas, with row upon row of houses, stores and warehouses laid out as if on purpose for the pleasure of the train voyeur. Graffiti-pockmarked rooftops and tiny backyard fiefdoms. The views both grand and utterly domestic. And there's still enough sky to go around.